


Sky Pirate AU

by TriffidsandCuckoos



Category: Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms
Genre: Everything is better with sky pirates, Holmes just wants in Watson's pants, M/M, Shameless AU, Watson puts up with a lunatic, movie-verse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-14
Updated: 2012-04-14
Packaged: 2017-11-03 15:04:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,110
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/382691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TriffidsandCuckoos/pseuds/TriffidsandCuckoos





	Sky Pirate AU

_Bloody pirates,_ Dr. John Watson thought, far from the first or the last time, as he wrapped another bandage around another bleeding limb and wondered if it would be more of a kindness just to shoot the man in the head now and save him from further suicidal escapades.

He wasn't supposed to be here. He hated flying – it made him think of the transportation to and from Afghanistan, the first time full of young and hopeful men and the second full of the bleeding and the dying, hooked up to machines he shuddered to recall. When they had finally touched down in London, he had sworn to himself he would never fly again. He would settle down, find a wife, and live a safe, normal life.

"Oh God," the man muttered, peering at him blearily. "You're thinking about that boring existence again."

Watson didn't respond beyond a pointed look he had been forced to perfect which indicated that patients bleeding from self-inflicted wounds gained through utter _insanity_ should keep their mouths shut. As usual, he was not so much ignored, judging by the glint in those dark eyes, as defied.

"You're a military man, doctor. Furthermore, it was evident that your new lifestyle was what you thought theoretically right, not what you considered the better option in practice. If I had not interceded, you would have gone quite insane within months."

"And you so kindly decided to accelerate that process," Watson muttered, perhaps pressing down on the wound a little harder than necessary.

"We required a doctor."

"If you didn't try to get yourself killed every week, you wouldn't need me to sew you back together."

His patient simply elegantly raised an eyebrow. "And what would be the point of a sky pirate who did not risk his life? It is hardly a choice made by one seeking safety and stability."

Sighing, Watson tied the bandage. "Or sanity."

"A minor detail." The man swung his legs off the bed, making ready to move, only to be shoved back by one who knew exactly where to push to make the pain in his arm flare up. Glaring indignantly, he pouted (Watson had never thought sky pirates could pout six months ago), "No need to get rough, old boy. Plenty of time for that later." He glanced around, apparently assessing the situation. "Although if you're eager..." He waggled his eyebrows suggestively.

Beginning to repack his bag (this particular patient always seemed to require far more equipment, tools and – if necessary – handcuffs than most), Watson glared back at him. "You are a depraved lunatic."

"You make that sound like a bad thing."

The doctor only just managed to push him back down again before he tried to leap up and make a run for it. Growling in frustration, he sat up enough to bring them eye-to-eye, doing nothing to remove Watson's hand from his chest. "I cannot simply stay here. The lack of activity, of anything to remotely occupy myself – since you seem unusually unwilling to oblige – would make me go mad."

Watson looked coolly back. "Who would ever notice the difference?"

Growling again, he hissed, "I do not require another nanny – Hudson already manages that task quite admirably." As usual, there was the flick of dark eyes towards the door as if at any moment the crew's long-suffering cook and self-appointed matron would burst into the room to assist the doctor. Not a bad idea, actually. "You are a member of my crew, and you cannot keep me confined here."

"Wrong." Watson leaned in a little, as the lack of a shirt on his companion prevented him from easily pulling him closer. "Right now, I am the doctor and, as my patient, you follow my orders. You didn't deliberately seek me out specifically to have a mindless subordinate." Irene had explained it to him once when she had caught him about to flee the ship late at night: any doctor would have done medically; the crew all knew what was really needed was somebody able to rein in this brilliant, insane man when necessary. A task Watson had taken to as naturally as breathing; as naturally as if he had always been meant to do it. A little too naturally, perhaps.

"Oh, very well," an annoyed voice muttered, bringing Watson back to the present. "One day only." His patient glared at the window dominating his cabin that offered a tantalising and breathtaking view of the clear skies they were flying through, the door, and finally Watson. "You do realise you will be keeping me company to do what little you can to compensate for enforcing the inevitable tedium?"

"I have a choice?" Watson asked, already sitting back on the bed.

"No" was the simple reply. "That one was an order." And Watson didn't answer back to that one, content to lull him into a false sense of security. 

Besides, the man was his captain.

_The buzz of mechanical wings as they whirled crazily through the air, every moment threatening a drop of increasing distance and deadliness, leather straps binding him uncomfortably close to the man whose wings were the only (pitifully weak) prevention from that fall... And then suddenly there was the ship, looming out of the clouds like a monster from the stories of old. The flier banked sharply, leaving Watson's stomach somewhere to their right, and swooped down onto the deck, landing in the middle of a circle of figures. A press of a minuscule catch and the straps sprang loose, dropping Watson to the floor._

_He allowed himself a brief moment to gather his breath (and perhaps permit his stomach to catch up with him again) before pushing himself to his feet once more and whirling on his kidnapper. "You idiotic, inconceivable... What makes you think you could ever get away with this?" A tad more melodramatic than he would have preferred, but he was too angry to actually convey even a fraction of the insults and outrage surging in his head._

_The man grinned back at him as he removed his wings, handing them to a cabin boy who had stepped forwards to receive them. "Because that's what I do," he declared grandly, before sweeping a hand around him to indicate the ship. "Welcome aboard the_ Improbable _, Dr Watson, domain of--"_

_"Sherlock Holmes," Watson groaned, starting to piece together some of the myths and tales and speculations with the wild-haired, wild-eyed man before him. Holmes and his crew of Irregulars: everybody had heard of them._

_The sky pirate arched an eyebrow, and something about that expression seemed oddly familiar to Watson. "That's_ Captain _Sherlock Holmes to you."_


End file.
